


Look around (bet you can't fall asleep)

by ardouring



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Cyberpunk, Exes to Lovers, Getting Back Together, M/M, Technology, yea i don't know what they're doing either
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-18
Updated: 2021-02-18
Packaged: 2021-03-18 12:22:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29489721
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ardouring/pseuds/ardouring
Summary: Lee Donghyuck thinks he's finally hit the jackpot in Neo City.After a terrible fall out with his ex that ended in him being demoted, he finally has a chance to climb the ranks again.All he has to do is to steal the legendary coal.Only problem? It's being guarded by his ex, Na Jaemin himself.
Relationships: Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Na Jaemin
Comments: 2
Kudos: 22
Collections: Love Dream 2020





	Look around (bet you can't fall asleep)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [xies](https://archiveofourown.org/users/xies/gifts).



> hi yes nahyuck brainrot carried me through this first term.
> 
> thank you so much for dream xchange for planning this whole even out! i was a pinch hitter for this round, and i sincerely hope my prompter enjoys this!! muah muah

Neo City is a city that never sleeps. Donghyuck should know this better than anyone in this city, but even on the most drearist of nights does he get surprised.

This is one of the moments he wishes it’s not true.

11.23pm. He knows the two guards are looking for a chance to nab him now. Their face shields are activated, the holographic shimmer reflecting against the bright blue streetlights.

Tsk. Donghyuck has fifty seconds to make a getaway, and the crowd separating them will either be his biggest obstacle or his getaway car. Thought, looking at the weary faces, he supposed that they won’t be awake enough to tell who he is, or even attempt to stop him.

The thing about a city that never sleeps is that it’s people never do, and it is reflected in everyone’s eyes and schedules.

He crunches the last bit of the lollipop in his mouth and pockets the stick in his pocket.

There goes his break hour, he thinks with a pity, pulling up the hood of his jacket just as both of the guards turn away from him. Perfectly on time. Another beat, and he stands straight from his leaning position against the metal pole, and sneaks into the passing crowd, blending in perfectly.

11.25 pm. He waits until the crowd gathers to the illuminated crossing. The traffic here has been divided into drivers and pedestrians, all waiting idly for their turn to cross this city’s biggest road. Flashy holographic signs are displayed all over the air in an attempt to grab the attention of the tired crowd. The largest one is a traffic warning in glaring red and white in a warning to not fly over pedestrians. 

Donghyuck finds one of the reflector mirrors, hidden away in the sea of cars and pedestrians. He stands in the cramped streets, crowded by thousands of people and vehicles alike, and gains a sick sense of adrenaline and thrill. The rows of people staring into the reflector, emotionless and unmoving, searching for a hint of a rest. He’s hidden amongst a sea of tired people unwilling to budge or entertain. Searching for him would be like digging through a haystack for a hair. A sense of anonymity and suspense when he blends so well, and yet he is never truly alone. A sick game of hide and seek, where being caught means capital punishment for him. 

11.26pm. He sees a flurry of movement amongst the tightly packed crowd, and the sounds of complaints setting a chain reaction of movement. The visors of the guards are flashing different colours as they scan people’s faces, before malfunctioning from the sheer movement around them as the crowd starts moving to cross the street.

(And when he breaks into a sprint, he turns around and waves cheerfully to the two guards, blowing a raspberry when they attempt to chase after him.)

The road back here is familiar, and he runs past illuminated bridges and shining billboards. He slides through a busy alleyway, and knocks thrice on an inconspicuous door.

11.30pm. “Agent Haechan reporting for duty!” Donghyuck loudly declares as he slides open the door, walls of automated computers blinking back to life at his words that he flinches at everytime they turn on. (“Why do your computers need googly eyes? Is being blinded by the light not enough, huh?” Taeil had simply laughed at him, and programmed them to start moving instead.)

He pokes around the computers as they wait for his manager to show up. Taeil is often asleep at all hours, especially after having Donghyuck as a field agent.

Donghyuck carefully tiptoes around the hundreds of digital equipment Taeil keeps around in the base. Half of it probably isn’t allowed by headquarters, but no one up there cares enough to check everyone’s locations personally. As long as they get their missions done with little loss, they’ll let everything off and maybe even start clearing your debt.

Despite the bright light from the computers, the room is still mostly dark, shrouding it in an air of mystery and curiosity. Taeil’s always been weird with his interior design. One of these days, someone is going to trip on one of his stationary fire hazards and Donghyuck can finally wave goodbye to the cursed computers with glowing eyes. 

He spots Taeil at the darkest area in the room, face planted into his empty ramen bowl.

Donghyuck gently lifts Taeil’s head, grabbing tissues to clean up his whole place, making sure his face is soup free.

Taeil jolts awake, and the next five seconds include a swing at his face, loud apologies, and the computer screen loudly beeping as the two of them scramble to shut it off.

Call it a moment of curiosity, or a moment of fate. But Donghyuck never believed in handing things off to unknown entities.

The computer flashes: _NEW MISSION. INFILTRATE NA INDUSTRIES TO SCOPE, AND IF NEEDED, STEAL COLDINE GOLD._

The two of them take a collective breath. Jackpot. The mission is too important to both of them to give up now. A chance to climb this hell’s standard of a social ladder. Before he can even think about it, Taeil has already accepted the mission even in his half asleep state.

Goldine coal. The most secretive and infamous fuel to exist so far. Whispers about how it can stand for hours and become a portable renewable energy source and how it can be fashioned into anything, from a tiny ring to even a ceiling wall. Of course, the louder voices are the ones saying that no such thing could exist, but Donghyuck supposed that in a world where people can genetically engineer themselves into animals and mythical creatures, it becomes a matter of when, not how.

And when technology is the best of themselves, where else does it learn but from nature itself? Buildings are built to absorb energy and last for days. Cars are learning how to fly, and they are chasing new limits everyday. Even humans themselves are learning from creatures. Donghyuck hasn’t heard of half the things they are genetically modifying now. He’s not even sure half of all these animal genes they’ve been injecting into themselves are extinct or have even existed in the first place.

But the gold doesn’t matter to Donghyuck, at least. He’s more interested in the person behind Na Industries. Na Jaemin. The shielded star of the multi billion corporation...

(Taeil’s cold stare threatens him to not mess anything up. _I know you’re not over him. But if you mess up this time, I can promise you a demotion is not the only thing we’re getting from this._ )

And Lee Donghyuck’s ex.

*

“And where did you get the idea that the three of us idiots with a fail rate higher than our rent,” Renjun yells, over the sound of his clacking keys, “Could even start to _think_ about infiltrating Na Industries?” 

Yangyang has paused painting his nails, fluorescent pink fingernail precariously lifted as he gapes at Donghyuck like he’s told him his rent is due tomorrow. (And according to the flimsy sheet stuck onto their refrigerator wall with magnets they dug out of the dumpster, it’s been due _yesterday_.)

The rational thing to do now is to kick Donghyuck out of their shared apartment despite his offering of free snacks and coffee he’s nicked from Taeil. But he’s known these two since they were cheating on high school tests, and the three of them learn how to live by day instead of months.

A Na Industries forum has already been pulled on Renjun’s computer. Yangyang’s already located the event where the Na’s are going to start boasting about their coal, nails smudged across his pillowcase.

Donghyuck snorts, pulling a thread from their ugly red loveseat, “It sounds like something that asshole will do.”

And the two of them are reminded of the elephant in the room. Na Jaemin.

Yangyang finally speaks up. “Hey. If you aren’t over him…”

“I think I’ve mostly forgotten about him.” Donghyuck snaps back too defensively, and Yangyang slowly blinks back at him, a tiny hint of a sad smile creeping up onto his face. They know better than to question him on this.

(The limits of the human brain? You cannot hide everything. It surfaces up like the ocean, bubbling and steady, and not matter how hard you try to push it down, it floats up against your will.)

And Donghyuck likes to think he comes up with the best ideas when he’s sad or half drunk. He makes it known either time.

He screams in the air, a moment of eureka causing both Renjun and Yangyang to look up in panic.

“I have a plan!” He jumps up from the ugly sofa they had picked up from the vintage dumpster and grabs a stray tablet.

The two of them look across their seats, twin looks exchanging fast amongst scattered tablets, wires and knick knacks on the table from the 21st century.

Renjun starts, “Is it one that doesn’t involve any kind of self sacrifice-” 

“Or one that might get us banned from the equipment room again?” Yangyang ends with a flourish, the both of them looking at him with looks of dismay and anguish.

Rude. That only happened thrice anyways.

But if rejection could set Donghyuck back, he’d still be back in early school, barely learning the basics of magical defense and decoding. (Not that his current job is any big upgrade from that, but hey, he’s getting paid for this!)

He tells them about his genius idea to infiltrate Na Industries through the party by mingling with the higher ups and slowly steal the files containing whatever security they have around the coal, then successfully stake out and steal the coal, and then finally retire and stay on the last natural beach out on Atlantis.

He also barely dodges a shearing knife tossed by Renjun.

*

Taeil didn’t have enough _budget_ to create another disguise, so it’s up to Donghyuck and the tiny transmissor in his ear to infiltrate the fancy event. But the last time he checked, he could hear popcorn and laughter between the three of them, and he supposes this will be another solo mission.

Donghyuck successfully passes his “secret invitation” to the guards, and almost scoffs at how simple the security here is, to let one of the worst agents in without even checking for biometrics.

He can hear the two women whispering in front of him, and he finds himself leaning in to save himself from the monotonous drawl of the presenter. The only things that keep boring conferences alive are dramatic reveals and office gossip.

“I swear, Jaemin has the genes of a mermaid! Who has ears and teeth so sharp?” One of the women says, and the other interrupts her whispering, “No way! It must be a siren! Who has a voice like that?”

This time, Donghyuck really does scoff out loud.

Jaemin has both the genes of a mermaid and a siren, and he makes it known to everyone within a five metre distance from him, as if they couldn’t tell by his looks alone.

Speak in the devil, and he shall arrive. The man of the hour arrives, and the applause from the room gets louder, and he can hear Yangyang open a can of beer.

Na Jaemin steps in, and Donghyuck is suddenly hit by a truckload of memories he’s struggled to contain for the past three years.

Jaemin stands there, looking not a day different from the time they last met, and Donghyuck is in some cheap rental suit he didn’t even borrow.

Sharp fangs that protrude when he smiles, giving him another edge of unease. Pointed ears and the faint outline of gills on his neck. The sparkle of a few stray scales. Obnoxious blue hair that looks as healthy as ever. His suit glints with night pearls embedded in the fabric, glitter in his hair that perfects the look.

(Donghyuck seethes. That asshole still looks as good as ever.)

Jaemin scans the area and his eyes glint as he stares at Donghyuck. He feels a shiver down his spine, and desperately brushes it off as siren magic.

That bastard chooses to step forward instead.

He can hear the loud bickering of Renjun and Yangyang in his headset and makes a note to mute them before the mission starts the next time.

“Nice suit you have there!” Jaemin sticks out his hand, calculating him with the same look he gives every potential foe. “Pity it doesn’t bring out your eyes much!” His smile turns from polite to teasing, and the scales around his neck turn into the faintest shade of pink.

A collective gasp sounds from both the people around and in his earpiece. 

Game on, Jaemin.

“Well, thank you!” Donghyuck starts, tone turning saccharine and dripping in sarcasm, “It does look better when it doesn’t look like I slept for thirty hours at the back of some maintenance truck. Good luck getting all the lint off your jacket!”

He can hear the exclamations all around him. He could take missions back to back for years, not eat or drink anything then, and he probably still couldn’t afford a single night pearl on his suit. 

The slight flinch on Jaemin’s face causes him to mentally celebrate. A successful mission in pissing him off and making sure he doesn’t bother him for the rest of the night!

He’s this close smugly walking off when Jaemin recovers just as fast, whisking two glasses from a digital waiter, and shoving one to him. His smile seems even brighter now, and he clings his glass against a still dumbstruck Donghyuck.

“Well, perfect! Let’s spend the rest critiquing everyone’s outfits!” A wink, “Quietly, of course!”

He walks out of that night with a number in his pocket, and far more pieces of clothing trivia he should have never known.

When Yangyang questions him about that later, he’s met with the sight of a pink Donghyuck.

“He called my hair cute! And then proceeded to tell me it would look better if it didn’t look like a fax machine went through it! A _fax machine_!”

Yangyang helps him fill up the report later, ignoring the fact that his idea had completely derailed.

_Target too well concealed to be found, more attempts to be taken on a later unconfirmed date._

(He remembers something like this, once.

“Oh my god… You like _like_ me.”, and Jaemin is blushing head to toe, retorting that Donghyuck was the one to ask him to say that for the tenth time today-

Donghyuck wants to see that blush on him again.)

*

Jaemin had conveniently forgotten the fact that as the super busy billionaire he is with his hundreds of meetings and test trials (Paperwork still exists in the digital age!), he doesn’t see Donghyuck’s messages.

And so the next time they meet is while Donghyuck is in his disguise, dressed down in his dirty, mouldy technician work clothes undercover unwiring a petty computer code that refuses to let him see the files about the coal, while Jaemin is still dressed in a designer suit, holding a hologram in his hand and a coffee in another.

“You ghosted me!” is the first thing that comes out of his mouth with no brain filter. It easily ranks top ten in the list of phrases he’s regretted saying, and he sincerely wishes the security wall he’s working on right now decides to act up and burn him to a crisp right now.

But Jaemin, the bastard, laughs so hard he accidentally turns off the hologram, and the whole row of employees and security cameras are zoomed onto them, wondering about the sudden hyena laugh they’ve all heard.

He pockets his hologram and reaches for Donghyuck’s hand instead, eyes deliberately sliding to the mess of a code on the digital wall that Donghyuck stumbles in erasing.

“Well, you mustn’t be too busy, if you’re still waiting for a text from me!” He places the cold coffee cup in Donghyuck’s free hand (hey, why is he holding the other one?) and pulls him along the hallway.

“So let’s go get coffee and call it a date, so I get to watch you stumble over your words to try to deny it isn’t one!”

The whole company is now wondering why their boss walked out early to woo a smouldering, furious man who looks ready to stab him with his staff badge.

(“So, what you’re saying, is that Jaemin played you like the fiddle you are?” Renjun side eyes him impassively. Donghyuck ducks in shame from the embarrassment of his harsh words.

“Well, fiddles are actually hard to play. Jaemin played Donghyuck like the cheap launchpad he is.” Taeil speaks up while pounding Yangyang’s chest. He’s choked on water after Donghyuck retold the tale for the fifth time to them. 

Donghyuck feels the words piercing through his sides like imaginary arrows. He’s been promoted to having his number added on Jaemin’s personal cell, and Jaemin texts back unusually fast.)

But the real query is this: Does Jaemin know? Who is Lee Donghyuck to Na Jaemin, and who is Haechan to the both of them?

*

He spots the pink hair tie on his hand one day, because Na Jaemin off all people is sentimental, and never fails to remind everyone of that.

“What’s that for?”

(It’s a promise that they made to each other back when they were younger, except that if the both of them broke it, does it really count?)

“Oh. Someone special gave it to me once.”

(When Lee Donghyuck met Na Jaemin in the artificial summer of who knows how long ago, he bets he doesn’t realise how different their lives would be from then on.

He’s there to buy a hair tie for his sister, because all of hers broke again, and he pushes his flimsy automated wheeler to the convenience store along the road.

It’s one of the last ones that still stands, so no one ever goes there, and he gets the shock of his life when he nearly trips over a kid who’s crying on one of the aisles.

He’s got pink hair. A siren or a mermaid? Donghyuck muses. And he’s crying in the middle of the aisle and the cashier really isn’t paid enough to deal with this. 

Mermaids are really sensitive.

He buys the pack with two ties inside them, the colours an ugly neon green and the second one with a pink that matches the shade of the mermaid’s hair, a flamboyant pink.

This one will be easy to break, he thinks to himself, pausing as he taps the child on his shoulder and passes him the pink tie. He wants to tell him to stop crying, but that feels like the mermaid will cry even harder.

He stops just in time to give the pink one to the mermaid, and he leaves with the other in his fist.

At least he’ll never see him ever again.

He grips the green one even tighter when he reaches home and gets the tongue lashing when his sister finds out he didn’t buy one for her.

Except that Donghyuck sees the child over and over again. In random grocery stores, and even school basements. He finds out more about Jaemin unwillingly, and learns he is nothing but a stubborn and kind boy, wanting to fulfill his dreams of being an engineer.

“I just need to return you this one!” He claims, and yet when he tries to give it back, Donghyuck realises that Jaemin looks close to crying again.

“Actually. Just don’t.” And he pulls the green one out of his bag, loops it over his wrist. “This way, we can match.”

Jaemin really cries this time. 

The fourth industrial revolution begins, and Donghyuck is too busy trying to stay afloat in the sea of information to give too much thought about the pink haired boy with big dreams.

They meet at a bar years later, when Jaemin has long been the face of Na Industries, Donghyuck the up and rising agent, and they laugh at each other when they find the matching hair ties on each other’s wrist.

They make it a promise, that they’ll find each other in this world no matter how long it takes. 

They date by the end of that year.

Donghyuck leaks out company secrets five years later, for a stupid promotion that wasn’t given to him in the end.

Jaemin destroys his reputation and career by the end of that month.

And through it all, the green hair tie is crumpled from all the years of sitting on his bedroom floor.)

*

Renjun _gently_ reminds him that he needs to get Jaemin’s fingerprints no matter which way, even if it means ruining his date with the awkward question of stealing his biometrics.

He scoffs when Donghyuck pales at the word date.

“Don’t tell me you still haven’t admitted to yourself the both of you are dating, snogging, and overall disgusting? Mermaids are sensitive creatures, you can’t keep doing that to him!”

And so Donghyuck stands in the hot artificial sunlight of the manmade summer,and thrusts his hand with the thin layer of film underneath them.

“I’m cold.” He deadpans, despite the fact that the weather has been unbearable and sticky to his skin.

A pause. Another smirk. “If you wanted to hold hands that badly, you could just ask!”

The whole street can hear the laughter and anger of the pair with linked hands.

*

The two of them stop by the same mart on their way back home. It’s long been upgraded, and instead of the simple old school design back then, it now looks like every other building on the street: modern and filled with technology.

But Jaemin either has forgotten or doesn’t notice, because Donghyuck has made his way to the hair ties, and he snatches them from the rack. These ones look smaller and brighter in colour.

“Let’s make new promises.” He says this with utmost conviction, a look of seriousness plastered all over him as he takes out the pink one and loops it on Jaemin’s wrist for him.

When Jaemin laughs at him, he pretends for a moment that Jaemin does know who he is, as Lee Donghyuck in the flesh, not Agent Haechan.

This almost feels normal to him.

*

Of course Donghyuck tells him. But he’s never one for big dramatic reveals while Jaemin has been for dramatic goodbyes, and he expects anger, and disappointment, and more shut doors in the wake of another ugly secret uncovered.

But Donghyuck doesn’t expect Jaemin to choke up, corners of his eyes tearing up before he breaks into a cry.

“Of course I knew.” He sniffles, eyes squinting shut. “I just thought you came because you were too scared to come back, not for stealing something because your mission wanted you too.” 

(You idiot. Did you really think the place with the best security in this world would not notice the chip in your ear when he leaned in to whisper about the duchess’ hat? Would really turn a blind eye to your blatant decoding when he gave you his coffee? Would not feel the thin layer of film underneath your fingers when you grasped his hand with yours?

He’s long accepted that the only way you would ever willingly hold his hands is when you pour poison over your own first.

He’s not sure which option he prefers.)

And when Donghyuck opens his mouth to speak, Jaemin gives him a withering look.

He stuffs the new pink hair tie they bought last week into his hands, and digs out the old one, squeezes it one last time and forces it into his grip.

He walks away out of whatever the hell they were trying to do, and Donghyuck is left there with two green hair ties in his pocket, two pink ones in his fist, and a slightly bleeding heart.

*

He walks on the streets again, except that this time he feels truly alone.

*

“Taeil, am I a bad person?” He asks this out of the blue, two weeks after Jaemin walks out on a little figment of his life.

A pause from the click clack of his keyboard. A hand ruffling his hair. They both know what he is talking about, and Taeil is the only one in his life kind enough to not drag the wound up the surface.

“Are you trying to hurt anyone, Donghyuck?”

He thinks back to rolled up scrunchies. He sees Jaemin back then and now, and remembers his smile. (He thinks back to seeing Jaemin cry, and wonders, if he should have done anything else-)

“I didn’t, but I ended up doing it anyway. But I know what I did wrong.”

Taeil smiles.

“Well then, Duckie, you’re doing just fine.”

*

Jaemin holds a rock in one of his hands.

“You really had to start throwing rocks at one of the places with the highest security?” 

And yet despite his words, he looks nothing less than amused.

“What am I supposed to do, you dumbass? _Call_ you?”

He sticks his tongue out and buzzes open the door.

They talk. About the little things that happened over all those years, and to their insecurities and weaknesses. They speak of their dreams and where they are now.

They’ve been talking for hours, but when Donghyuck links hands with Jaemin as the first streaks of the sunrise break into the artificial atmosphere, he truly feels the first wave of calm wash over him.

*

“No way, Haechan literally continued to carry out the mission despite the fact he might be killed for betraying the agency! He planted the counterfeit coal into the headquarters!”

“But it was Jaemin that created the fake coal, and he dug out every fault the agency ever had and tore it from the inside out after the agency started producing it ! Decades of unethical management ended by a pair of spiteful lovers!”

And in another room:

“Na Jaemin. I can’t believe _I’m_ still your type.”

**Author's Note:**

> i think i have obsession with perfect kdrama lead x rascal with irish flirting techniques
> 
> but yes! i think i tried to explore the evolution of technology and how humans have always adapted and brought to change with it, and how despite all these weird advancements in everything, we are still our simple shells of feelings and thoughts?
> 
> anyways! i hope you enjoyed this piece that i wish i could have done more justice to! muah muah and i hope you have a great week!
> 
> pls feel free to req!


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